Playing the Field

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More by Brian Heater

It's the second week of an annual drive aimed at keeping Jersey City radio station WFMU in the black, and once again a weekly comedy call-in show has positioned itself as one of the top moneymakers for the nonprofit freeform radio station.

This is Prekop's first time back on the road since the birth of his twins, and as much as a handful as two newborns surely are, Prekop admits that leaving them behind for a few weeks will be a touch difficult.

Hiatuses, as it turns out, sometimes fade as well, and when your former label asks really nicely whether you'd be interested in getting the old band back together to help celebrate its 20th birthday, those initial catalysts for dissolution sometimes seem less clear.

Cherie Currie was just a Bowie-obsessed 15-year-old smoking a cigarette at the Sugar Shack, an under-21 club in North Hollywood, when she was spotted by producer Kim Fowley. A Svengali, visionary and predator, he was cruising the underage clubs.

Shellshag is Johnny Shell and Jen Shag. He sings and plays guitar and she sings and plays drums. For years they lived in San Francisco and ran Starcleaners, a record label and public arts space. They were in bands together and apart, but all that matters now is that they are Shellshag.

The band doesn't quite fit in with the current, decidedly '60s and '70s signifiers of indie rock cool. "Sometimes people will listen to our music and say, 'It’s kind of '90s, and it reminds me of Pavement,' and I really don't think it does. We sometimes worry that we're out of step with the trend."